Maybe Too Soon
by Amberwind2001
Summary: Coming early is not as good as coming just at the right moment. Sequel to 18 Seconds to Make Old Things New Again, and part of the Survival Series.
1. Prelude

It's here, kiddos! For NaNoWriMo 2013, I'm finally polishing off and posting the much-awaited sequel to _18 Seconds to Make Old Things New Again_! If you haven't read that story, or the other pieces in the Survival series, I'd suggest a quick pop back to read those - certain parts of this story will make very little sense if you have not. You're fine to read this prelude, though... the drama/action/jiggery-pokery begins tomorrow!

The current plan is to complete and post a chapter per day. Can I keep it up? Give me reviews and keep me motivated - I'ma need it.

**Maybe Too Soon**

**Prelude**

The young man ran through the trees, lank blonde hair whipping around his face as he fled in terror. "Not me, not me," he panted out, breath panicked. Trees were passed in a blur, branches catching and tearing at his jeans and t-shirt. He paid the scratches no heed as he pushed forward, hoping to escape his pursuer.

"Please, don't! I'm just a kid!" He cried out, hoping that the man chasing him would leave him alone. _He's only taken the adults, _the teen's thoughts raced, _he can't want me. I can't be old enough for whatever he wants from us. _

The boy twisted his ankle and fell roughly to the ground, knocking the breath from his lungs. He gasped and turned over, scrambling backwards using his hands until he backed into a tree. The figure pursuing him loomed over him, silhouetted by the later afternoon light.

"Please, no," The boy pleaded with tears beginning to stream down his cheeks. "NOO-"

His cries are cut off in a flash of blue light.


	2. Coincidence, I Think Not

**Author's Note: **For the confused, Zły Wilk (pronounced zwieh vilk) is the assumed name Rose is using to work at UNIT. I couldn't resist - Zły Wilk is Polish for Bad Wolf.

In terms of the time period, this fic is set in 1989, 3 years after Benton returned to UNIT with a promotion after his brief stint as a car salesman (cited in the novel The Power of the Daleks). Rose has been working for UNIT for 11 years, and the people that work most closely with her, while not aware of most of her past, are aware that she is not human and has spent a significant portion of her life in another reality as well as traveling through time.

As per usual, I don't own it, but I love your reviews!

**Chapter 1 – Coincidence, I Think Not**

"_Coming early is not as good as coming just at the right moment." - Unknown_

The Doctor looked on thoughtfully through the window as Lieutenant Benton stepped forward to open the passenger door of the Jeep that had pulled up outside of the hotel where UNIT had set up its makeshift operations center.

The woman who stepped out of the vehicle was young; she couldn't have been more than twenty-five years old. Her hair was dark brown, with golden streaks in it, and flowed in waves to the middle of her back. She was dressed eccentrically, even by his standards-white and pink trainers, black low-slung jeans, a pink midriff top, a navy blue tweed jacket with brown leather patches at the elbows, and a tatty purple scarf slung about her neck. There was a flash of gold under the scarf, where she appeared to be wearing a necklace, and a dark spot on her lower right abdomen, where he could see the shadow of a tattoo, although the second story window he was looking down from did not give him a proper vantage to see it clearly.

The girl greeted Benton with an enthusiastic hug, which was accepted stiffly, with little grace but a humoring smile. She pulled back and said something, giving Benton a cheeky smile in return. Benton gestured for her to follow him, leading the girl indoors.

A moment later, Benton entered the room, the young woman hot on his heels. She smiled at Ace, but stopped short when she saw the Doctor, her eyes widening in shock and her mouth going slack. Benton cleared his throat. "Doctor, I'd like to introduce you to Zły Wilk, our current science advisor. Ms. Wilk, this is..."

"The Doctor, I know," the girl said, seeming to come out of whatever shock seeing him had produced. "Believe me, I know."

"Hello, Ms. Wilk," the Doctor said, tipping his hat to her, "Although I am rather curious as to how you know me. I don't recall having the pleasure of your acquaintance."

Ms. Wilk gave the Doctor an amused smile, and winked at him. "'Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.'"

The Doctor returned her smile. "Thoreau. Good man. You didn't answer my question, though."

Her smile grew into a full-blown grin, and her tongue peeked out to rest at the edge of her mouth. The Doctor found himself warming under the force of her expression, and wondered how this girl was managing to affect him in such a manner. She giggled slightly, and said, "That's because you didn't ask one."

The Doctor smiled, nodding in acknowledgment of her point. Ace chose that moment to step forward, bouncing slightly as she extended her hand, "I'm Ace."

Ms. Wilk shook Ace's hand, her expression inscrutable. After a moment, a wry smile crossed Ms. Wilk's face. "And you can call me Zed; most people do, rather than butchering the pronunciation. You don't bear much resemblance to your missing posters, Miss McShane. "

Ace opened and closed her mouth several times, apparently flummoxed by Zły's statement, sending the older woman into a fit of giggling. "Don't worry, Ace! My mum had missing posters out for me for a year the first time I went traveling, and I wasn't much older than you. I am the last person to judge, especially when it comes to running off with him," Zły said, gesturing towards the Doctor.

Comprehension dawned on the Doctor's features. "A future companion, I take it?" As she nodded in the affirmative, he asked, "When?"

She shook her head and tutted at him. "You know I can't tell you that, Doctor. No one should know too much about their own future, especially a Time Lord."

"Quite right too," said the Doctor, and he noticed distinct distress flash across Zły's features before being subsumed behind a mask of youthful joviality. "Right!" he continued, rolling the 'r' in an exaggerated manner and clapping his hands together. "Now that we are done exchanging pleasantries, I must wonder what UNIT is doing in Northern Wales."

"I could ask you the same question, Doctor," Zły said, her tone skating along the thin edge of sarcasm. She looked at Ace and hooked a thumb in his direction. "His driving off again, was it?"

Ace smiled. "Said something about the Glass Pyramids of San Kloon, and then lands us in the middle of a field full of sheep."

"They arrived not long before you, Ms. Wilk," interjected Benton. "Given the Doctor's nose for trouble, I'm not entirely surprised."

"Trouble?" The Doctor queried, eyebrows raised. "What kind of trouble?"

"This town was founded about twenty years ago, with the help of UNIT, by a group of temporal refugees who were dumped in the surrounding countryside by a localized, but fairly powerful, time storm," Zły lectured, cutting off Benton before he could begin. "The people were everything from medieval peasants to 63rd century movers and shakers. Plus a few sentient humanoids and non-humanoids, and a scattering of animal life. The community is fairly insular, for obvious reasons. They almost never accept new residents, and only call us or the police if there is a serious problem."

"Well, I think they may have let it go too long this time," said Benton, talking over Zły in what appeared to be an ongoing game between them, judging by the good-natured smiles they exchanged. "Approximately a month ago, some of the original residents began to disappear. Eight people are now unaccounted for, and the body of the first woman to go missing was found a few days ago. We can't be sure until I can get Ms. Wilk access for a formal examination, but from the photographs it looks like she was somehow rapidly aged. She was only 37, but the body we found was that of at least a ninety year old."

The Doctor's expression grew increasingly serious as they spoke. "Any evidence of violence?"

Zły shook her head. "She didn't have a mark on her from what I saw in the preliminary photographs. If I didn't know better, I would say that she died simply of old age."

"None of the newer residents are among the missing," Benton said. "All but one of the missing are from the more extreme ends of the range of time the residents were pulled from. The exception is the son of our first victim – he went missing two days ago, which is why they called us in. There does not seem to be any evidence of a new temporal disturbance. For their safety, we have evacuated as many of the townsfolk as could be moved, but there are a handful of elderly folk and non-humans who cannot be relocated."

"Well," the Doctor said, "it seems like you folks have everything well in hand. I'm curious as to why you would transport Ms. Wilk all the way out here when most of the relevant research she needs to do would be better completed in the lab at UNIT headquarters."

Zły shook her head and gave the Doctor a rueful smile. "I'm not really here in my capacity as UNIT's scientific advisor, Doctor. I'm here as bait."

"Bait?" The Doctor was incredulous. "Whatever for?"

"As far as we can tell," Benton explained, "Whatever or whoever is taking people is targeting those who have traveled the farthest in time. Ms. Wilk has some rather… unique qualities that make her particularly tempting to whatever is behind the disappearances."

"Don't be so hasty to assume that our culprit isn't human, Lieutenant," Zły admonished. "I've often found that the worst atrocities are those which humans perpetrate upon themselves."

The Doctor studied Zły thoughtfully. She looked very young, and some of her mannerisms reinforced that impression, but her words were of someone much older and much more experienced than her looks would give credit to, not to mention that she was working for UNIT in the position he had once occupied. True, at some future point in his timeline she had been his companion, but he could not imagine that life aboard the TARDIS could account for the sadness in her eyes, or the depth of knowledge she was exhibiting. Not entirely, at any rate. He reached out a mental feeler, attempting to glean some sort of surface thought, and nearly reeled back physically at the rebuke he received. Her mental shields were the strongest he had ever encountered; the equivalent of a dalekanium tower with deadlock seals. Zły's gaze shifted sharply to meet his, and she raised an eyebrow as if to challenge the telepathic faux pas, but did not mention his intrusion out loud.

"Lieutenant Benton," Zły said, her eyes staying on the Doctor, "I need to gain access to Mrs. Delaney's body as soon as possible so I can see if I missed anything when I studied the photographs."

"I can have the body prepared for you to view in an hour, Ms. Wilk," Benton replied stiffly, standing straighter in response to the implied order.

"Good. In the meantime, if you can spare a couple of lads for a security detail to escort Ace and the Doctor? It's been a while since the last disappearance, and they are going to be just as much at risk as I am," Zły explained, her eyes finally shifting back to Benton. "As strangers in town, we're already going to attract attention. A Time Lord and his companion will be noticed for sure."

"I'm afraid we don't have many extra men. If all three of you stay together, I can add one man to the detail that was already planned for you, Ms. Wilk," Benton replied gruffly.

"Fine," huffed Zły, turning and pointing a finger at the Doctor, "but I expect you to follow your own first rule for once!"

Ace looked confused and said, "What, that the Doctor's in charge?"

Zły looked at Ace and her eyes crinkled up in amusement. "Seems he's changed his rules between when he was with you and when he brought me on board."

Zły got very close to the Doctor, ensuring that he was looking her in the eye, and emphasized each word with a poke to the center of his chest. "Don't wander off!"


	3. Utter Indignity

**Author's Note: **Sorry about skipping a couple days of posting. Got a nasty cold, needed to make sure the stuff I wrote while I was sick was actually good when I had a clear head. Onwards!

**Chapter 2 – Utter Indignity**

"_You know, sometimes, when they say you're ahead of your time, it's just a polite way of saying you have a real bad sense of timing." - George McGovern_

Rose looked from the Doctor to Ace and back again, keeping her mug full of tea half raised in front of her like a shield. It had been obvious from the Doctor's reaction when she had first come in that he did not recognize her, and she was fairly sure that the Time War had not occurred for him yet. Her heart ached that she was being dishonest with him by omission, but at even the barest inkling of a thought of telling him what was coming caused her head to fill with visions of Reapers and universes collapsing. She may have been that reckless once, but she knew that there was no way she could take that risk now.

She had been shocked when the Doctor had attempted to touch her mind. She couldn't figure out how he had, though. Both of her Doctors from before had needed to touch her to gain access to her thoughts, and even then it was with reluctance. Whether he was simply a stronger telepath during this regeneration, or the difficulty her other Doctors had was a result of the trauma of the Time War, she couldn't tell.

She felt Ace shake her elbow, and realized that she hadn't heard the last several minutes of conversation. "Sorry, Ace, my mind wandered off for a bit."

"That's alright. Like I was asking, Zed, you said something earlier about when you were my age, like you were so much older. You don't look it. How old are you, anyway?"

Rose felt a lead weight drop in her stomach, even as she gave Ace a small smile. "I can see why he picked you to travel with. How old do you think I am, Ace?"

"I dunno. Twenty, twenty-two?"

Rose gave a derisive snort in spite of herself, and didn't make eye contact as she answered. "Try adding a century, and you'll be closer to the mark," she said, immediately taking a large gulp of her tea to cover her dread at having given them that clue to what she was. _I'mnotgoingtobeabletokeepeverythingIneedtofromthem ,thiskeepsup._

Ace's eyes went wide in realization. "You're not human!"

Rose shook her head. "No, no I'm not. But I used to be, if you find that comforting."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes at her words, his interest piqued. "Used to be human? In my experience, changing species goes wrong more often than not."

Rose winced, and kept her eyes lowered. "It wasn't something that could be helped. The process was gradual. It was years before anyone even noticed what was happening to me, and by then it was far too late to stop it. Not that I wanted to. Not exactly meant to be Earth-bound, me."

The Doctor gave a wry half smile, and nodded in acknowledgment. "And yet you're here in Wales, mucking about in my old post."

Rose snorted in amusement. "One thing never changes about you, Doctor; you rarely end up where you mean to be, and when you do land in the right place, there's trouble. You were supposed to drop me off in London, 2006, and instead I got Cardiff, 1978. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get a job when you technically haven't been born yet?"

As the Doctor began sputtering denials, Rose gave Ace a conspiratorial grin. "First time I made him take me home so I could pick up some clothes, he told me we'd only been gone 12 hours. Mum was hangin' on to me for dear life. I had just seen the missing posters when himself bursts through the door and tells me it had been 12 months. Twelve bloody months! Mum slapped him so hard I thought his head would spin clear 'round."

Ace started laughing at Rose's story, head thrown back, and Rose herself offered up a conspiratorial chuckle while inwardly relaxing at her deflection from the topic of her current situation. She heard the Doctor mutter something along the lines of, "… idiotic, being laughed at for the actions of my future selves. Completely ignominious…" and joined Ace in outright laughter.

In the face of the Doctor's insincere outrage, Rose smiled, and nudged Ace in the arm. "Remind me to tell you what happened when I met up with Sarah Jane Smith."

"You know Sarah Jane?" The Doctor asked, voice rising momentarily before he composed himself. "How is she?"

Rose shot the Doctor a warning look. "Not nearly old enough yet, all things considered. I'd advise against casually dropping in for tea."

He had the good sense to look abashed at the implications in her tone. "She would chuck a teapot at my head right now, wouldn't she?"

"Most likely," replied Rose, raising an eyebrow at him with just a hint of indignation at how he treated a woman who wouldn't technically be her friend for a couple more decades. Upon hearing the door behind her crack open, she raised her voice a bit while winking at Ace. "But I'm sure Mr. Benton is looking Ms. Smith up quite often during his off-duty hours."

"I most certainly do not, Ms. Wilk," Benton said while stepping up behind her chair, causing Rose to tip her head back to look up at him. "Not any more than is polite for old acquaintances. And has anyone told you that your ability to drag someone into a conversation like that is unsettling?"

Rose smiled up at him. "Bollocks, on both counts. You love it."

"Language, Ms. Wilk," chided Benton.

"Is merely words, Mr. Benton, and I've found over the years that it's not the words but the intentions behind them that matter. Now," Rose said, turning in her seat to face Lieutenant Benton properly, "you wouldn't be here unless you had a reason."

Sgt. Benton nodded. "Mrs. Delaney's body is ready for your examination. I'm here to escort you."

Rose nodded and stood, depositing her mug on the table. "Lead the way, Lieutenant," she said, gesturing for the Doctor and Ace to follow.

~.o0o.~

In spite of her eccentric wardrobe and youthful face, the Doctor observed, Ms. Wilk was the embodiment of professionalism once moving on the case in front of her. Just outside of the entrance to the examination room, she paused long enough to take into account her unexpected guests. "Ace," she asked, "we're going in to examine a dead body. I know the Doctor will be okay with it, but will you? You can stay out here, if you'd rather."

Ace looked carefully from the Doctor to Zły and back, visibly pulling the brash personality he'd come to be fond of about herself like a cloak, before nodding once and stepping forward to lead the way in. Zły put up an arm to stop her, pointing at the stack of gowns and masks on a table next to the door before reaching over to grab one of each for herself. "Gown, mask, and gloves, Ace. You too, Doctor. While I'm fairly certain from the initial reports that her condition wasn't communicable, I'd just as soon not take chances."

"Ms. Wilk, as a Time Lord, I'm sure I'm...," began the Doctor, only to be cut off.

"Doctor, two of the missing aren't human. Whoever or whatever is taking them can obviously affect more than one species, and the key element seems to be time travel – the more, the better," stated Zły, with a hint of anger in her tone. "Which makes you a prime target. It would be prudent, until we know what is causing the disappearances and have a cause of death for Mrs. Delaney, not to take unnecessary chances."

The Doctor opened his mouth to argue further, but was cut off. "You can put the mask and gloves on, Doctor," Zły stated forcefully, thrusting the items into his chest and pushing him back slightly in the process, "or you can stay out here. I would prefer to have you in there giving me your opinions, but I will not risk a paradox if this is, in fact, contagious, by allowing you to die before I've properly met you."

The Doctor nodded slightly, taking the mask and gloves from Zły's hands and donning them before grabbing a gown and following his companions into the room.

Mrs. Delaney's body had been laid out on the examination table of the village's GP's office, and covered with a sheet to her shoulders. At first glance, as Ms. Wilk and Lt. Benton had indicated, she had the same sad, almost shrunken stature that seemed common to the most aged humans the Doctor had met in the past. The only thing that indicated that Mrs. Delaney was not, in fact, elderly, was her hair style – long, flowing, and still the dark tones of her youth instead of whitened by age. Just looking at her hair, the Doctor could tell that this was a woman who was not meant to be old.

"I'd like to avoid doing a full autopsy if I can help it," Zły said in a quieter voice than she had used outside, out of an unconscious respect for the body of the woman on the table. "These aren't the proper facilities for it, and to be frank, I haven't the proper training either."

"Then why ask to see her body at all?" Ace asked, averting her eyes from the table as Zły gently moved Mrs. Delaney's arm from beneath the sheet for a closer look.

"Because reports and photographs can only tell me so much, Ace," Zły replied slowly, leaning in to peer closely at the wrist of the arm in front of her. "The people who did the initial examination may have missed something, either because it's alien and they have no experience of it, or because they don't want to acknowledge the evidence presented to them. Humans live in a state of denial, it's how we manage to get on with our lives in the face of everything that's out there. Think of all you've seen with the Doctor. How much of it would you believe had happened if you hadn't seen it with your own eyes?"

Before Ace could respond to her, though, Zły leaned in and deeply sniffed at the wrist in front of her. "Doctor, come smell this," she waved the Doctor towards the body and lifted Mrs. Delaney's arm towards him. The Doctor raised a skeptical eyebrow, but leaned in and took a deep breath through the mask.

"Ionization. This woman was held in an energy restraint," the Doctor confirmed what Zły had obviously suspected.

"The question is, why?" Zły paused, and puzzled for a moment. "Doctor, can you use the sonic screwdriver to scan her for energy readings?"

The Doctor shot her a look of confusion.

Zły winced, and mumbled, "You haven't programmed it to do that yet."

"No, I have not." The Doctor would have found her discomfort amusing under other circumstances, but at the moment he couldn't find the hearts for it.

"Only one thing for it, then," Zły said while leading the way out of the room, stripping off her gown, mask, and gloves. "We need to get ourselves caught."


	4. This is a Bad Plan

**Author's Note: **I'm so sorry about the delay, guys! My husband kind of blew up my computer by trying to replace my motherboard, and then burning out my video card when he tried to switch me back after that didn't work, and I've been making do with less than my full ability to write (or game, or read other fanfic, or much of anything, really) for the last week. I have much catching up to do!

**Chapter 3 – This is a Bad Plan**

_"You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions. Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources. Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions." - Gary Ryan Blair_

Rose knew full well what kind of look the Doctor was shooting at her back as she led the way from the GP's office to the hotel to strategize. This Doctor's whole demeanor screamed 'manipulative strategist', and not 'rush into danger and make up a plan later'.

"You know, I didn't think you were being serious when you said you were here as bait," Ace prompted, hoping for an explanation.

"These people were caught up in a storm and deposited outside of their time, and now they're being preyed upon. At least I have a chance of fighting back." Rose replied, anger and determination tinting the tone of her voice.

"How? I mean, I have explosives, but you aren't carrying anything," Ace said, still confused.

Rose whirled around and tapped Ace on the forehead with her index finger. "Think, Ace! The people who've travelled farthest are the first to disappear. UNIT has taken out as many of the other potential victims as they can. Before you and the Doctor arrived, that left me as the best target for whoever or whatever has been taking these people. John wanted to have the UNIT troops stationed here plan an ambush…"

"I'm sorry," interrupted the Doctor, "John?"

Rose smiled. "Lt. Benton has a first name, Doctor. Unlike some of us," she said, shooting him an indulgent glance that spoke of having had this conversation with another version of him. The Doctor rolled his eyes, having heard it many times before, from other companions and acquaintances.

"We are, to put it simply, wearing targets on our backs," Rose told them, making sure they both understood her meaning before continuing. "Whatever has been happening here will happen to one of us next, and soon. Mrs. Delaney's son was taken two days ago. If these incidents keep to the pattern, one of us will be targeted within the next day or so."

"But what about the guards?" asked the Doctor. "As much as I often disapprove of their methods, one would think that taking one of us would be made difficult by our friendly shadows."

"I know," Rose replied while looking back at where two UNIT privates were trailing behind them. "But I've got an idea on how to deal with that."

"Wha…?" Ace started to ask, before being shushed by Rose.

"I'll tell you once we're in our room at the hotel. The fewer ears hear the plan, the better."

~.o0o.~

"That is not a plan, that is suicide!"

The Doctor was bordering on apoplectic.

"You said it yourself, Doctor," Zły said, getting calmer as the Doctor became more upset. "It's unlikely one of us will be targeted when we've got UNIT shadowing our every move. As much as I like and respect Lt. Benton, trying to plan an ambush when we have no idea what we're dealing with is going to be ineffective at best and disastrous at worst. I already have far too many deaths on my conscience, and I'd like to avoid more if I can."

"What you're suggesting…"

"Will not put you or Ace in danger, Doctor. I wouldn't allow it, for the risk of Reapers alone."

"Reapers?" Ace interjected, hoping to put an end, or at least a lull, into an argument that had been going for well over an hour.

"Long story," Zły said, at the same moment the Doctor said, "Nothing to worry about."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at that. "You've seen them."

Zły nodded. "Watched someone I loved get eaten by one. Someone else I loved died to fix the paradox."

The Doctor nodded solemnly, knowing without asking that whatever had happened was not something he should delve into for more detail. Some things did not need to be discussed, even without the risk of possibly knowing more about his own future than he should.

Ace saw the unspoken byplay, not understanding it fully. "Why would Reapers be a risk, then?"

"Time is fluid," the Doctor explained, "but some things can't be changed. By being here, and knowing that Ms. Wilk is going to travel with me in the future, we've made it so that if anything happens that would cause me to not be able to meet her later, it would create a wound in time. Time Lords can fix those wounds, but only if they're aware of them. Reapers are the creatures that arrive to cleanse the paradox from existence if my people cannot or will not intervene."

"So, Zed is going to put herself in danger, because we can't."

"Precisely."

"So you won't try to stop me, then," Zły stated, assuming the argument was over.

"I never said that," replied the Doctor, picking up the previous argument as though there had been no interruption. "Waiting to be taken and then hoping you can get out again is not a plan."

"Well, it's better than our other options. It's also more of a plan than I usually have. The same could be said for you."

"That's not the point!" the Doctor thundered at her in response.

"Then what is the point, Doctor? You're acting like… like you don't even want to see this thing stopped!"

"Not if it risks you!"

"I… why would that matter?" Zły asked quietly, as though afraid of the answer.

The Doctor stayed silent, realizing that he had overstepped an unseen boundary.

Zły seemed to know what the issue was without him voicing it. "Funny thing, Doctor. As often as I get lost, I'm also very good at getting found again."

The Doctor gave her a look that, if it had been on another face, would have seemed forlorn. "What if you're not there to find?"

"Let me worry about that," Zły replied softly. "Tonight, I'll slip the protection detail. Follow behind me, track where I'm taken. Bring Lt. Benton and his squad in once you have my location, if you can. And try not to get caught yourselves."

"I still don't like this."

"You don't have to like it, Doctor," Zły replied firmly. "You just have to go along with it, and pull me out of the fire if it's more than we bargained for."


End file.
